BachrachBlog

Have you ever wondered why some financial advisors have the kind of businesses they want, while others don’t? It’s really no big mystery. They simply took three steps back and made the important choices that led them to their current success.

To create the business you want, start by taking the first step back: Decide what kind of life you want. Do you know exactly how you want to spend the next 10, 20, or 30 years? When you decide how you want your life to look and why, you’re ready to take the second step and create a financial game plan.

It almost goes without saying that there’s a financial component involved in creating the life you want. Therefore, step two is to figure out how much money you need to live the life you want. You also need to consider the time component: How much time are you willing to invest today in order to earn for your future? Most people are willing to sacrifice some quality of life today so they can achieve a better quality of life in the future, but if that sacrifice gets too big, then their willingness to continue eventually diminishes.

By figuring out how much money you need and how much time you’re willing to work, you’re ready for step three: figuring out how to invest that time. When you know what you want your life to look like and how you’re willing to invest your time, you’ll quickly realize that you don’t have any time to waste.

The good news is that what produces a simpler and better life for you also creates better results and value for your clients. Our experience shows that clients are much better served when you organize a “deliverables team” that is dedicated to making sure your clients achieve their goals regardless of what happens in the market, the economy, or the world. Whether you’re 22 years old and a brand-new advisor, or 65 years old with decades of experience, your personal time in the business will never match the collective wisdom and experience you can put to bear toward your client’s best interest when you assemble a team of competent, professional, trustworthy money managers, financial plan writers, insurance experts, tax professionals, attorneys, etc., to work for you and your clients.

Don’t delude yourself into thinking, “Once I get my arms around all this stuff, my business will really take off.” All that stuff is impossible to “get your arms around.” It’s simply too much stuff, coming from too many sources, and there’s simply not enough time. You have too many clients and too many variables to ever be able to manage in the finite amount of time that you can dedicate to your business without letting the rest of your life falling apart. Do you know why you feel like there’s never enough time? Because there isn’t enough time to run the business you have or are trying to build.

The headline reads: “Wall Street wins big as Dodd drops fiduciary provision.” And the first line of that article is “Chalk it up as a win for the securities and insurance industries.” How do the securities and insurance industries win when the client loses? It’s a fascinating way to view the world, but not surprising. Here’s my translation: “the lower the standards the easier it is for us to manage our advisors, salespeople, and agents.” It’s the usual product-oriented, fear-based thinking from our industry at-large and it proves, once again, that you have a competitive advantage as an individual Trusted Advisor who chooses to put the client first. Can you believe what you just read; you have a competitive advantage by putting the client first? Yes, you do. Doesn’t everyone put the client first? Apparently not. Amazingly enough, our industry considers it a win when they don’t have to adopt the highest standard of care for their clients. Wow.

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about Fiduciary:

“A fiduciary duty is a legal or ethical relationship of confidence or trust between two or more parties, most commonly a fiduciary and a principal. In a fiduciary relation, one person, in a position of vulnerability, justifiably reposes confidence, good faith, reliance and trust in another whose aid, advice or protection is sought in some matter. In such a relation good conscience requires one to act at all times for the sole benefit and interests of another, with loyalty to those interests.

Sounds like the perfect standard for the kind of advisor you are choosing to be. What do you think?

Over the years, 20+ now, I’ve studied a lot, taught a lot, and written a lot about building high-trust client relationships. Lately I’ve found myself saying to our core group of committed advisors who implement the Values-Based Financial Planning™ turn-key business model that, “trust is not the objective, trust is a by-product of the other things that you do, like your behavior, your communication, and the quality of your work.”

 I’ve come to believe that if gaining your clients trust is your objective then the focus is on the wrong place: you. When, of course, the focus should be on them. When your goal is to establish trust it might be to further your agenda, like, “I have to get them to trust me… so they hire me… so they give me assets… so they buy my product or idea, etc, etc. etc.”

Consider this point of view instead:  “I am going to show up relaxed, be authentic, behave with an extremely high level of professionalism, skillfully execute my process for creating a great client interview experience or progress meeting experience, ask great questions, listen with empathy, be well-organized , be respectful of their time by not bragging about myself or my company or boring them with over-explanations of financial concepts and ideas, and be selective about only letting the truly right-fit people join my community of Ideal Clients. And if, in the process of behaving this way, they trust me and hire me, fine. If not, that’s okay too.”

Some advisors try to force things to happen with everyone they meet by using sales, influence, or persuasion tactics to “close the deal.” This is akin to a woman desperately seeking a husband because her “biological clock is ticking” instead of  looking for the right partner with similar goals and values who is best suited for the two them to create a life together of happiness and fulfillment.

I’m in the business of helping successful advisors double-quadruple their business revenue in 4 years or less, so what I’m writing about here is not purely altruistic. You may be concerned that “relaxing” or abandoning a more intense sales focus will diminish your results. Actually, the contrary is true. Which “way of being” do you think is more likely to attract successful people to want to become your clients, the relaxed Trusted Advisor or the intense salesperson? Relaxed doesn’t mean wishy-washy or lacking in passion for helping people make smart choices about their money. It means that you don’t show up with what we used to call “commission breath.”

Think of each client relationship more like a professional marriage. The objectives are for them to have the best possible experience, whether they become a client or not, and for only the “right-fits” to become clients.

Here are a few time-tested ideas for behaving in ways that create the by-product of trust and a few thoughts about not-to-do behaviors that erode trust.

1         Look for “right fit” people to join your client community versus a “they have money therefore I want them” mentality. Create an Ideal Client Profile where the personality element of the people you meet is equally important to the money element in order for them to earn an invitation to join your client community. Notice the difference in how it feels to think of inviting people to do business with you versus “closing the deal.”

2          Ask good questions.

1. Values (What’s important about money to you?)
2. Goals (What are your tangible goals that require money and planning to achieve? How much do you want to have for that goal? By when? What are two or three words that describe what you are thinking and feeling once you have achieved that goal?)
3. Does the idea of having a comprehensive financial plan which gives you a higher probability of achieving your goals and fulfilling your values appeal to you?
4. Would you like to join our client community and have us do this work for you?

3         Listen with empathy. The tendency, especially during an initial client interview with people you may have never met face-to-face, is to think more about what you are going to say next while they are answering your questions. When you do this you don’t really hear what they said, therefore it’s hard to be empathetic to things you weren’t fully present, mentally, to hear. The solution is to have your questions memorized so you don’t have to think about what you are going to ask next, thus allowing you to be fully present and a much more empathic listener.

4         Record your client meetings, especially the initial client interview. I’ve written in this magazine before about recording client meetings and to save you the trouble of searching back issues here’s a script for introducing the recorder.  “I appreciate the investment of time and effort you made to be here today. The fact that you have done so tells me that you must be serious about your money, is that true? (pause for answer) You’ll notice that I’ll ask many relevant questions, take copious notes, and I also record the meeting. (refer to the recorder and pause) The reason I record is because I’m very thorough. (pause) Do you know how you can watch a movie a second or third time and see things you missed the first time?” (Nice long pause for them to respond.) “Well giving you advice about your money so you can achieve your goals is obviously much more important than a movie, so I want to make sure our advice is right for you. If we choose to work together, I’ll listen to this recording at least one more time to make sure to get it right. ” (pause) Ask your first question. (See “ask good questions” above)

5         Give advice with conviction. Salespeople tend to offer alternatives and let the prospect or client choose. Trusted Advisors gather all the information they need, consult with other experts where appropriate, and give the best advice for the client… with conviction. There may be more than one way to achieve a goal, but there is only one best way. Find the best way and give advice with conviction.

6         Tell the truth even if doing so jeopardizes the relationship.  Serious and successful people don’t want to pay good money for a rubber-stamp, yes-person kissing their butts and telling them only what they want to hear. It’s your job to tell the truth, especially when it’s what they need to hear and not what they want to hear.

7         Avoid direct statements or indirect implications that you can do the impossible. Ie: beat the market. The primary determinant of a person achieving their goals is their own behavior. Your job is much more about managing your clients’ choices and actions than it is about managing their money. The bottom line is that there is no guarantee of anything. The best you can do is to help people get their entire financial house in order, make the best choices possible at the time, and be in the strongest position possible to adapt to whatever non-controllable events occur.  The less you play the predict-the-future game the more credible you are.

8         Be inspiring. Focus on helping clients and prospective clients create a compelling vision for their future and become their bridge to make it happen. Being a future vision creator is much more trust-building than being a problem-solver.

9         Avoid the use of the old-school greed appeal: “work with me and you’ll get a better return because our guru has a better beat the market black box.”

10     Avoid the use of the old-school fear tactic: “buy gold (or whatever) now because the big deficits and weak dollar mean inevitable inflation coming to erode your buying power! You could outlive your money and end up a burden to your family, living off community hand-outs, or on the government dole. How would that make you feel?”

11     Be a comprehensive financial professional. It’s interesting that most financial advisors claim to be comprehensive. But what does that really mean? What is “comprehensive financial services?” At the very least, comprehensive implies “everything.” Do you really help your clients take care of everything related to their money? How many things is that? I know of one advisor who has done such a great job of defining comprehensive financial services that many advisors look to him for leadership on this subject. Check out www.trustedadvisortoolkit.com for the best information I know of about delivering truly comprehensive financial services.

12     Put the client first.  Duh. I know. It sounds almost silly and certainly cliché. And yet there is a lot of discussion and controversy by the regulators and industry leaders about the fiduciary standard. Am I the only one who finds it absurd that legislation is necessary for our industry to step up and adopt a fiduciary standard? Isn’t that simply always, in all situations, and under all circumstances putting your client’s needs ahead of your own? Isn’t that what you already do? Do you really need a law about that? Apparently the industry does. The good news is that your competition needs somebody else to define integrity for them. And speaking of integrity…

13     Have no conflicts of interest. Notice I didn’t say “disclose conflicts of interest.” Run your business without any conflicts of interest. Why should there be any conflicts of interest to disclose?

Keep in mind that these are not “tactics” to build trust. These are the powerful behaviors of  financial professionals who are very good at what they do and who genuinely care about helping people get their financial house in order, achieve their goals, and fulfill their values.  By behaving at this very high level of professionalism trust is the by-product of that behavior.

The bottom line is that you can’t “technique” your way to trust. You earn it by who you are and what you do.

Keeping your head above water. Drowning in paperwork. Trying to stay afloat. Up a creek without a paddle. Smooth sailing. Have you ever noticed how many water-related expressions there are for describing the way you do business? That’s because it’s such a great metaphor, and one you can easily relate to.

Do an interesting little exercise using this metaphor. Take out a piece of paper, draw a horizontal line across the middle, and pretended it was a water line. Above the line, list all the activities that really matter in building a successful business. Below the line, list the distractions that could keep them from being successful financial advisors. Basically, only three activities belong above the line: acquiring clients, serving clients, and building your team.

ABOVE-THE-LINE ACTIVITIES

Nearly everyone agrees that brand-new advisors should spend a huge amount of time on client acquisition. Unfortunately, many established advisors think the rule doesn’t apply to them. They often ignore this crucial above-the-line activity. Instead, they spend their time on all the activities below the line and soon find their businesses starting to go under.

The second above-the-line activity, serving clients, simply means delivering what you’ve promised. Meeting your clients’ expectations is an absolute must for keeping your head above water. This includes ensuring the timely delivery of financial plans, money management services, and advice about insurance, budgeting, debt reduction or elimination, cash management, and emergency reserves.

The third above-the-line activity is building your team. This means organizing your employees and creating successful relationships with outside resources who can provide the services your clients need.

Basically, that’s it. Unless you’re doing things to acquire clients, serve clients, or build your team, you’re spending your time on below-the-line activities that do nothing but distract you from becoming a successful advisor. Here are five common examples.

BELOW-THE-LINE ACTIVITIES

1. Overeducating Yourself: Some advisors think their job is to know everything about insurance, investments, and financial planning. Instead of harnessing the knowledge of experts who can best serve their clients, they spend all their time becoming educated in those areas.

2. Reading Financial Pornography: Watching 24-hour news reports, reading financial newspapers and magazines, tracking the prices of oil and gold, and trying to guess the impact that the next terrorist bombing will have on the market is a waste of time, yet advisors are consumed with that kind of stuff. Your clients really want you to help them achieve their goals—and for the record, beating the market is not a goal.

3. Hanging Around with the Wrong People: If you’re hanging out with people who have average businesses with average client satisfaction and average productivity, then chances are your business will be a lot like that, too. Don’t confuse consensus with wisdom. Just because most of the financial services industry is living below the line doesn’t mean it’s the right place to be. As Jim Rohn says, you can do anything you want. You’re not a tree. Move! Be where you want to be, and do what you want to do. How can you tell whether you’re hanging out with people who are living below the line?

4. Failing to Delegate: Trying to do everything yourself is the last and probably worst example of below-the-line activity.

No one wants to see their businesses sink. To keep your head above water, remember this simple metaphor and spend your time above the line. Focus on the three activities that really matter—acquiring clients, serving clients, and building your team—and don’t get drowned in a sea of distractions.

In the previous blog, I mentioned that I have identified 12 clear choices that are turning points in the careers of virtually every financial professional.  Every producer makes these choices either deliberately or by default. Six of these are best presented as positive choices that consistently lead to greater success (these were mentioned in the previous blog) and six of these choices are best presented as commonly unmade choices that lead to failure, or worse: mediocrity. 

Here are the 6 choices never made or not made soon enough:

1. Failure to recognize that what got you from where you were to where you are today may not be the best way to get from where you are today to where you want to be in the future. (Failure to change.)

Do you believe that the industry legends would do the same things they did in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, or 80s today?  Their genius was not in what they did then.  Their genius was their ability to figure out what worked at whatever time they needed it.

2. Failure to implement well.

Will Rogers once said, “Even if you’re on the right track you will still get run over if you just sit there.”  There are no secrets in business. 

3. Failure to master the referral interview. (Training your clients to do all your sales and marketing.)

All prospecting and marketing other than referrals should be temporary.  Prospecting and marketing is what some people who have no clients or no natural market have to do to get started.  Unfortunately, some producers get so good at it that they just keep doing it forever.

4. Failure to master the art of delegation.

My mentor said, “I’m very good at what I do because I only do what I am very good at?”  If you are only going to do what you are very good at then you have to hire people who are very good at the other things.  Hiring well and delegating is a skill that all serious business people must develop. 

5. Failure to align your choices and your target market with your values.

I am not a teacher of target marketing, but I have been a pretty good student.  One of the key decisions that I believe was instrumental to the success I enjoy today was the choice to make the financial services industries my exclusive target market.  It wasn’t an easy decision to be industry-specific, but it was one of my best.

6. Failure to write your book.

Are you currently writing a book?  Have you ever thought it would be a good idea?  Have you ever read a book on money or insurance and said, “I could have written that?”  A book may be the best credibility tool in your entire marketing strategy. You can always write the foreword to a book that you believe in and where you have the same philosophy. This would be much simpler and surely easier.  The Values-Based Financial Planning book is one of those books. If you haven’t read it, you might consider starting here.

Simply rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 in each of the 6 areas above and then begin to make incremental improvements.  Be honest with yourself and make a commitment to make the choices that will propel you to your highest level of success.